Meteor shower of Taurides culminating this Halloween



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The southern Taurid meteor shower arrives every year at the end of September and lasts until mid-November, culminating at the end of October.

While the southern Taurids are a relatively minor meteor shower – less known than the Perseids of the summer and the Geminids of the winter – anyone watching it should be able to glimpse about seven shooting stars of exceptional brightness every hours.

The full moon of October was held on October 24 and, as Halloween is a whole week after that, everyone should enjoy an almost black sky, assuming you can escape the lights of the big cities and Halloween parties – and as long as there are none. big storms of Halloween.

The best place to see the meteors will be high in the southern night sky, near the constellation Taurus, from which the shower takes its name.

All these meteors are made up of dust and debris from Comet Encke, the most famous comet of our solar system. The official 2P / Encke name revolves around the sun every 3.3 years. The Earth crosses its orbit every autumn. That's why we offer this annual treatment.

This Halloween, you do not need to disguise yourself as an astronomer to see this show. You just have to brave the fresh air, look to fall, look up and wait patiently to spot about a meteor every 10 minutes.

If you do not want to wait for seven damn meteors every hour, the Geminids meteor shower in mid-December is usually the biggest show of the year with nearly 120 shooting stars every hour!

But if you want to play Halloween, you can also look up to try to spot a meteor while children walk from house to house.

Jason Meyers is a part-time meteorologist and a big fan of research. You can follow him on Twitter or watch one of his entertaining and educational YouTube videos.

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